Sony Might Be Going All-in on PC Gaming, Spider-Man Files Reveal

With its latest excessive profile PC releases of previously unique video games like God of War and Horizon Zero Dawn, Sony appears to be making a shift to advertising and marketing its online game arm as a hybrid console-PC firm. Now, newly knowledgemined information pointing to a PlayStation PC recreation launcher might imply the corporate needs to ape Xbox in bridging to the computer-based market.

In the times following launch, dataminers discovered information that referenced a “PlayStation PC Launcher” in Sony’s newest port of Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered, VGC reports. The publication says it has confirmed and verified the information in query, although Gizmodo has not been in a position to independently confirm them. However, this follows on the heels of clues popping out of an internet (pun meant) of information conspicuously left inside Sony’s newest port that confirmed the corporate could let customers link their PlayStation Network accounts to their PC video games.

It’s nonetheless up within the air whether or not this implies Sony needs to create its personal PC launcher/retailer web page, then make its video games unique to that platform. Of course, customers completely “love” loading up a recreation on Steam or the Epic Store solely to have that time to one other, sluggish launcher, so we hope the corporate will be taught from others’ failures. Sony additionally has a whole lot of floor to cowl in comparison with the competitors. Microsoft is already far forward of Sony with its PC-Xbox Live account integration.

It’s clear that there’s an viewers for PlayStation unique video games in the PC market, and the corporate is making its ambitions clear with its personal PlayStation for PC page. Sony’s God of War and Horizon Zero Dawn each proved to be prime sellers on the platform. The firm showed again in May that, in simply two months, the previous offered round 971,000 items within the two or so months it’s been out there. Meanwhile, the latter has offered slightly below 2.4 million copies over the previous yr and a half. Sony additionally expects gross sales of its PC titles to exceed $300 million this yr. The firm apparently needs half of its recreation library on PC by 2025.

And if concurrent gamers are any indication, Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered is already a giant hit, with round 66,000 players swinging across the streets of Manhattan throughout peak play time on Sunday.

That stated, the variety of Sony-exclusive video games re-released on PC is minimal in comparison with its rivals, with solely six first-party video games out there on each Steam and Epic Store. Any new launcher would wish to additionally combine third-party video games to make it worthwhile, though it’s potential that Sony might add some depth to a PC launcher by integrating Playstation Plus’ Xbox Game Pass-like options into it. 

It could also be a manner for the corporate that’s been exhausting pressed to provide sufficient PS5s to satisfy demand to truly create buzz for its unique content material. The firm has stated it needs to quickly enhance manufacturing this yr, however a transfer to PC ports will nonetheless make its video games way more accessible.

Executives have stated that by increasing onto PC, they will go from getting access to a “very narrow” phase of gamers to a a lot bigger one. Well, no duh. It’s unusual how lengthy Sony has resisted permitting PC avid gamers entry to the corporate’s library. Maybe that’s due to how deeply entrenched Microsoft, its chief rival within the gaming console area, is in PCs. Last yr, Jim Ryan—Sony Interactive’s CEO— informed GQ that whereas the price of making video games has gone up, “our ease of making it [exclusive games] available to non-console owners has grown.”